Partnering for success in the financial services sector

Partnering for success in the financial services sector

Capita Customer Management has its own dedicated business specialising in operational consulting, complaints, remediation and interim resourcing. As a leading player in the remediation market, they are highly experienced when it comes to the intricacies of maintaining successful outsourcing partnerships in highly regulated sectors. Here, Business Development Director Tracey Roberts shares her thoughts on how to make it work.

What makes regulated sectors different?

In highly regulated industries, choosing an outsourcing partner is not a decision to be made lightly. Clients entrust their partners with not only delivering a superior customer experience, but ensuring that this flawless service is executed whilst also being fully compliant with clients’ own regulatory obligations.

In the markets that I work with, I see more and more clients looking to focus on their core business, whilst seeking a partner excelling in their own specialist services that can be combined with those of the client to deliver the best proposition to customers.

In some cases, partners will have to deliver on promises made to industry regulators on behalf of their clients. An example of this would be in the financial services sector, where Capita has been providing PPI solutions for the past 9 years. On behalf of some of the UK’s largest banks, we’ve reviewed more than 1 million cases and paid over £1 billion in redress to customers. By providing services like this, business partners can ensure that their clients remain compliant and in line with sector regulations.

Building a great partnership

In order to create a successful business partnership you have to develop a relationship of openness, honesty and trust, where the client and supplier have common goals and drivers to ensure key success criteria are met. Partners should treat a client’s business as if it were their own, taking the same stance towards meeting regulations and delivering on expected outcomes as they would in their own industry.

Finding your motivation

What really motivates us to improve is the desire to make a positive difference to our clients, their customers, and the industry overall. Organisations should always seek to add value to their client engagements, whether through offering expert advice and guidance, or by investing in technology when it can enhance the working partnership. Of course, it’s important to remember that it’s OK to challenge clients if a better outcome is possible, and to encourage clients to challenge back in return.

Standing still is never an option, so we are consistently reviewing our own strategies and aligning them with the challenges our clients are facing. At the same time, we keep one eye on the horizon in case of any risks that may present themselves in the market.

Investment is key

I think it’s crucial to also remember that being in a partnership requires equal levels of investment from both parties. For example, our clients expect us to take on some commercial risk for the services that we offer, which is an industry change that we’ve seen occurring frequently in recent times. I welcome this change personally – after all, being in a partnership means that we are all aiming to achieve the same high standards.